Young: Frustration getting a bit high' during 7-game skid

Philadelphia 76ers' Lavoy Allen, left, and Brooklyn Nets' Mason Plumlee fight for a rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game at the Barclays Center, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

PHILADELPHIA — There was a moment toward the end of practice, when 76ers coach Brett Brown corralled Thaddeus Young, put his hands on Young’s waist, and had a momentary talk with the seventh-year forward. Young didn’t look all that thrilled to be having the conversation.

There were lapses Wednesday in the Sixers’ spirited session, which lasted more than two and a half hours, when more hollering could be heard than basketball bouncing.

Frustration could be peaking.

“It gets a bit high sometimes,” Young said, after the Sixers had completed their practice at PCOM, “but like I said, it’s the nature of dealing with a rebuilding process, a restructuring of an organization, and just an overall situation of young guys on the team. Some of the guys just don’t know.

“(We have) a lot of first- and second-year guys and when you’re dealing with those types of (players), like I said, the frustration level does get up there because you’re not used to it. I’m used to playing with guys who are four- or five-year veterans in this league and they can play. And then you have one- or two-year guys who are fresh and trying to make a name for themselves.”

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The Sixers (7-19) will play against themselves one more day before playing against the Brooklyn Nets, to whom they lost Monday. It’s been 16 days since the Sixers last won a game, dropping seven straight and 14 of their last 16 overall.

That three-game winning streak to open their season seems like forever ago.

So emotions are running high, naturally. Brown gathered together Young and rookie Michael Carter-Williams on the court after practice and had a two-minute pow-wow with them, about which only they know. The expression on Young’s face afterward, one of confusion, said plenty.

Only serving to complicate matters are the rampant trade rumors that involve Young. While Yahoo! Sports is reporting Boston is the frontrunner for Omer Asik, the Turkish center whom Houston is trying to unload by Thursday, there are others that label the Sixers as an interested third party receiving calls regarding Young.

Young, who has had five coaches in seven seasons, came into the league with Maurice Cheeks. The ex-Sixers coach had a message for Young about player inexperience that, at the time, meant nothing to him. And only several years removed from it, and in a trying rebuilding experience such as this, is Cheeks’ dispatch ringing true for Young.

“Coach Cheeks, when I first came to the league, would always say, ‘You just don’t know.’ Now, I really understand what that means,” Young said. “It’s just a lot of things that go on in the course of a game, especially an NBA game with a lot of young guys, where you’re playing against 10-year vets like Paul Pierce and (Kevin Garnett) and the rest of the guys on that (Brooklyn) team that (our guys) just don’t know. It’s something that it is. You have to go out there and keep playing hard, but they might have certain ways they pick you apart that they know, but you don’t know they’re doing it. It’s one of those things where you have to play it out and keep playing.”

Playing, Young said, is the only way to get through what the Sixers are experiencing. He said he can’t chastise his teammates for their effort, because they’re trying. And he’s right: There’s only so much Young can do but allow his teammates to feel out the league and, in the process, make mistakes. Eleven of the 15 players on the Sixers’ roster are 24 years or younger. Five are rookies, and four more are playing in only their second and third seasons.

While the focus for this season has been placed clearly on player development and planning for the future, consideration hasn’t always leaned toward the three 25-year-olds (Young, Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner) who are labeled as veterans. As the greener players on the team are being given looks, in order to determine whether they are fits for the franchise down the road, players like Young are waiting it out. It’s only natural for him to want to win. Accepting his team’s status as a rebuilding club isn’t without discomfort.

“Remind myself that I have to be a leader for my teammates,” he said, on ways of curtailing frustration. “I have to be one of the key guys for my team, and you just go out there and play. You can’t let too much get too me — too much volume — and you just focus in. You might get frustrated at times, but hey, that’s a part of the game. It’s part of life.”

Follow Christopher A. Vito on Twitter @ChrisVito.

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